Chalet
by BelleTheWriter
Summary: Katniss takes a temporary job working for a family of billionaires as a chalet worker to help her sister pay for med school. But certain blonde boy makes her fall for him even though she knows she will lose her job if she dates him. Inspired in chalet girl, not the same story as in the movie.


Katniss paces around the kitchen of the small apartment the sisters live in. She's trying to keep her mind away of the fact that they sold their childhood home so they could go different directions for the first time since their father's death. Prim is bringing the boxes that contain her room's stuff to the living room as she watches her sister mumble incoherent words to herself. She sets the box she was carrying down on the floor and walks to where Katniss is and embraces her in a big bear hug.

"Hey," Prim says softly. "It's okay. We're going to be okay." Katniss crosses her arms over her chest after parting away and nods a few times.

"I know," She knows that Prim will be perfectly fine back on campus, but it'll be harder for Katniss to live so far away that she won't be able to visit her like she usually did. Her little sister managed to get to Panem's best college with a scholarship for pre-med. Katniss' waiting job wasn't enough to pay the bills anymore so they decided to sell the apartment and most of their stuff. She started applying on several places for a new job, and she got one that pays the triple of her old salary as a chalet worker. "It's just that I'm really going to miss you, little duck."

"Me too Katniss," They share a sad smile. "But we can skype and text, and your job only lasts for a few months until the season is over." The family she was working for owned several companies and residences, but they loved to spend their time on their chalet back home during fall and most of the winter. She was moving in to their house and sharing a room with a coworker.

"It's not going to be the same," She says with a sad tone.

"I know, but it'll be worth it." Prim says trying to find the positive side to their new life. "Now, let's finish packing so I can drop you off at the train station."

They wrap their old stuff in boxes while dancing around to a Spotify playlist Prim made for them. After dropping off Katniss at the station she was giving the apartment to the new owners and one of her new friends was driving her to her dorms where she was going to live. So this was technically the last time that they were going to be together until before Christmas.

"Let's go," Katniss takes her bags and walks them to the door. She takes a last look to the little place and holds her tears while a big knot forms on her throat. Prim closes the door and takes her sister's hand because she knows she's not going to leave unless someone drags her out.

Prim drives them to the station while trying to make small talk. When they get there, she turns off the engine and stays silent for a few seconds, hesitating on whether to speak or not. She sighs and a few tears fall from her face a long with a small sob.

"Hey," Katniss says. "It's okay, we're going to be fine." She says while caressing her arm, wishing to say more but not finding the right words. "Let's go."

The chilly fall air hits their faces when they get out of the car. Katniss carries two bags and Prim helps her with one hanging it over her shoulder. The busy station lights up with all the people walking from right to left, talking over the phone, and sharing hugs with random people. After Katniss buys her ticket the sisters stare at each other for a couple of seconds, both bursting into tears.

"Take care of yourself," Katniss tells Prim hugging her tightly. "Don't walk around like you were immortal, if you date anyone please let me know, and if you need anything call me and I'll be on the first train back."

"Kat, it's only a few months," She says smiling. "I don't want you to worry, please just focus on working and we'll talk on any chance you get."

"I love you." She kisses her cheek and takes the bag she had from her.

"I love you too," Prim wipes her tears away. "Now get out of here, you're going to miss your train!"

The train travels fast and she feels herself become a little dizzy on the little wagons. Luckily, she didn't have to share her line with someone else, and there were no crying babies or anything that could bother her. The chalet was on the outskirts of district 12, where most of the tourist attractions where found. There was a big lake where people went swimming in the summer and ice skating in the winter, then there were those big mountains where you could ski, and the breathtaking woods she was excited about.

Her father used to take her there and taught her how to hunt and make her own bow out of scratch. They spent a lot of time there when she was a little girl, and when fall came the landscape turned into a series of orange, red, and brown ombré that extended all over the mountains to create a stunning view. She gazes through the window and feels excitement start to accumulate in her stomach and a small smile spreads across her face, while she watches the sun turn into a soft orange and get lost between the mountains. It's so-

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice behind her startles her from her thoughts. She turns back and almost let's her jaw drop when she sees the incredibly handsome man standing in front of her, with his both hands on his pockets and his dirty blonde hair pulled back.

"Um, yeah." It's the only thing she can manage to say.

His blue eyes shift from hers to the landscape behind her. She scans the tan he has printed on his skin, the nice blue-washed jeans resting low on his hips, and a black Lacoste jacket that shows the neck of the red shirt he's wearing underneath. He stands there with confidence and a certain kind of arrogance, but still he looks unfairly handsome.

"I love the color it creates," He says as his eyes sparkle a little and the corner of his mouth twitches into a sincere smile. "It's so-"

"There you are!" A blond girl with a tight tiny dress interrupts him and wraps her arms around his neck. "I was wondering what was taking you so long." She drags him down the hall with him. Katniss can see him roll his eyes a little, she looks back to the window and then back at him. Their eyes look and he holds their stare. Unsure what to do, she offers him her best smile and looks away shyly.

She purses her lips and sits back trying to forget the handsome guy that talked to her about a sunset. How stupid is that? She takes out her iPod, plugs in her headphones and hits the shuffle button hoping she might get distracted and stop playing back in her mind their little conversation. The train arrives in no time and she gets off quickly, trying not to run into the guy again because she knows if she did, it was going to be _so_ awkward.

The second she gets to the parking lot she sees a tall blonde girl talking over the phone with someone, holing a sign with her name written on it. She walks over to her and smiles, but the girl ignores her and keeps talking over the phone.

"…I'm serious, he was totally checking my boobs out," She giggles but stops when she notices Katniss waving a hand on her face. "Call you later." She hangs up and puts the phone on her jacket's pocket. She makes a long pause. "Seriously?"

Katniss raises her eyebrows and nods. "Yep."

"Hop in."

Madge drives slowly through the empty roads full of leaves. She explains all the way the house is organized and by the end I'm so confused that I can just remember several parts of the whole speech she just gave me; six bathrooms, four rooms, one living room, one kitchen, and three floors. I watch the mountains pass through my window amazed by their size and even more by their beauty, Madge in the other hand drives with her eyes glued to the road completely ignoring them as if they didn't exist.

Minutes later, they arrive to a small town full of tall hotels and cabins. The streets are created so that the least number of cars circulate through the area and that people stick with the idea of walking everywhere instead of using any transportation. There are no taxi cabs or busses, just a station on almost every street's corner where you can rent a bike. The car slows down when a group of people walk right next to us and Madge lowers her window.

"Thought I recognized that ass," She tells the small girl that approaches her. "Where you heading?"

"Sae's restaurant, wanna come?" The girl says with a big smile on her face.

"Can't, the Mellark's arrive today and I need to drop off the new girl," Madge explains.

"Oh! New girl. Can I meet her?" The redhead says with enthusiasm.

"Katniss, Annie," Madge moves her hand from me to the girl. "Annie, Katniss." And the other way around.

"Nice to meet you!" Katniss sees that the girl has big-deep-sea green eyes that take most of the space from her eyebrows to her nose. She has never stopped wearing that white-teethed smile since she started talking to Madge, and she can see that the girl is particularly small for someone from their district.

"You too."

"Later, Ann," Madge rolls up the window and continues straight on the road.

Two minutes later Madge enters a small road that leads them to a garden with a couple of trees surrounded by colorful leaves, and she parks the car. They get down and Katniss lifts her head up so much that she almost brings it all the way to her back so she can get a full view of the chalet. "Wow." She mumbles under her breath.

Madge opens the trunk and smashes Katniss on the chest with her bags. She struggles to find her balance but she eventually does and follows Madge to the entrance's stairs. The chalet is made from wood, covered in a beautiful mahogany color. Madge opens the doors and warmth with a scent of vanilla hits Katniss face, she looks around the luxurious living room and immediately feels a pang of jealousy.

A red minimalist coach stands in the middle of the four-wall-room with a chimney in front of it holding a plasma TV, that Katniss is sure, is bigger that her old refrigeration at her apartment. A bear-rug lies on the floor in between the chimney and the couch, a small coffee table over it. Madge walks indifferently through a hall that leads to a kitchen that is the size of Katniss' old apartment, and opens a door next to the oven.

Two twin beds greet them, one is covered with blankets and blue cushions, while the other is a naked mattress with a small bedside table on its right side. Katniss sets her stuff over the mattress and looks around the room _. It isn't much but it is enough_ , she thinks. The beds are pressed against a white wall that doesn't leave much space for anything else on it, on another wall there is a big window with a view to the mountains, and on the walls next to the beds are two parallel doors that lead to their own bad room and closets.

"Like it?" Madge asks.

"I do," Katniss says while looking around one more time.

Katniss starts unpacking her stuff while Madge helps her make her bed. "I know the house can be a little overwhelming for us chalet girls, so we have stablished a few rules." She says while tucking in the blanket under the mattress. "Number one, no friends over, no parties. Number two, you can go out and party as many times as you want, as long as breakfast is served at eight o'clock." Katniss nods as she follows up. "Number three and the most important, probably the one that caused most of the former girls their job, no sleeping with the clients."

Madge pauses and looks Katniss directly in the eye. "Got it?"

 _Wow, she really is serious._ "Yes, ma'am."

"Great!" Madge exclaims as she finishes the bed. "Make yourself at home then. You can look around if you want, but be ready in 40 minutes so we can pick up the family."

She decides to pass Madge's suggestion about exploring the house, and instead she picks up her phone and dials Prim's number. She answers two rings later, "Hello?"

"Hey little duck," She sits on her bed. "How's it going, are you in your dorms?"

"Yeah, Rue and I arrived like an hour ago, and we just finished unpacking our stuff," She explains. "We're headed to the cafeteria to meet up with some friends."

"That's great," Katniss tries to say it with more excitement than the way it came out, but she really misses her.

"How are you doing?" Prim says changing the subject. "How's the house? Is your roommate nice?"

"It's great, the chalet is _huge,_ and my roommate and I well…" She makes a pause. "You know how I am with people, but she doesn't seem a bad person. I think we will get along really well."

"Sounds amazing," Katniss hears voices in the back. "Hey Kat, I'm going to have to call you later. I miss you."

"I miss you too," She says hiding her sad tone.

"Bye." Prim says and Katniss waits for her to hang up and when she doesn't she can hear laughing and more talking in the background.

 _She must be having a lot of fun_ , she thinks sadly. With a heavy sigh, she hangs up and deicides to take Madge's suggestion about looking around and she finds out the chalet is even bigger than it looks from the outside. When she arrives to the top floor she sees that they use it as an attic to store boxes and old stuff, the dust over the wooden floor makes her nose twitch and she sneezes a few times.

Something makes her notice that the ceiling is strangely lower than the other room's, so she looks up scanning it. A small metal circle stands above her, she traces it with her finger and sees that the wood inside the circle is rather sunk than on the other wood's level. She puts her finger inside it, curves her finger attaching to a curve, and pulls the circle down causing a small-squared piece of wood open like a door and a stair fall diagonally.

She smiles a little and climbs up the stair, feeling the wind hit her face just like in the train station. The first thing that she sees is the dark night sky, and a billion of shinning starts above her, a view that takes her breath away. It's very rare that a sky like this shows downtown where she used to live, now she understands why the major keeps this area the most ecological as possible. Katniss sits down on the house's roof and admires the sky for a little longer.

The roof has railings all over its edges made from the same material as the rest of the house, there's a lot of trash, some water puddles in random places, and old yellow newspapers laying around. Katniss breaths in the pine smell and the fresh air, she feels liberated and somehow happy that she took this job, even if she misses her sister. She doesn't take long before she decides to go back and finish her house tour.

Madge comes to their room minutes later carrying two grocery bags on each hand, "Can you help me with these?"

"Sure," Katniss rushes and takes one of the bags from her.

They start taking the things out of the bags and she notices that most of the things in them are expensive stuff. She spots caviar, two bottles of Champaign and some fancy scotch, and artisan bread that looks and smells delicious.

"I spoke to the pilot," Madge says. "He told me they landed safely and that they are on their way home. They should be here any minute."

As to confirm Madge's comment, the doorbell rang and the two girls rushed to the door. Madge opened it and a black limo with its trunk open stood in front of them, while a man dressed on a uniform took the passenger's luggage out. The car's door opened and a boy got out, he looked around and the rest of the family followed him. Three boys, one girl, all of them around Katniss age, and an older man and a woman, that Katniss guessed, were their parents.

"Who's everybody?" Katniss asks confused.

"The three blonde boys are the brothers," Madge whispers. "The girl is the youngest bimbo girlfriend, their father is an angel fallen from the sky, but the mother … just don't get in her way." She pauses. "I have to warm you, they're all pretty flirty so just shake it off and don't feel special about it."

 _Okay…_

One of the brothers approaches them and smiles. "Madgey-Padgey!" He exclaims and fixes his hair with one hand. He's wearing black jeans and a very fancy jacket that is about two sizes smaller for his arms, which makes them pop up vigorously. "How's it going?"

They hug and she returns him the smile. "Well, pretty great actually." She answers simply.

The brother turns to Katniss and gives her a smile that intended to be sexy, lifting the right corner of his mouth and showing a little bit his teeth. It bothers her but she can't help but feel like she has seen it somewhere before. "And who's this lovely lady over here?"

He lifts her hand and kisses it. Katniss twitches her nose and smacks it away from him. "This is Katniss," Madge says rolling her eyes a little. "Katniss this is Rye."

"Nice to meet you," Rye winks at her.

"My pleasure."

Katniss and Madge greet the other brother named Wheat, and she finds out he was much nicer and less flirty, but he still has that hint of arrogance she notices is a family quality. The mother of the family starts getting near them and she sees that she drags herself like a peacock, with her head high, her purse in between her elbow and wrist, and her hand slightly opened.

"Mr. Mellark," Madge says when the couple reaches them. "Welcome back, we hope your flight was pleasant."

"Oh, it was dear," He smiles and his eyes shine with joy, like he is one of those people that only gets better with each passing year. "It's lovely seeing you, who's our new member of the team?"

He turns to look at Katniss and she freezes. "This is Katniss." Madge answers for her and Katniss thanks her with a small glance.

"Marcus Mellark," They shake hands. "And this is my wife."

"Nice to meet you," She says shyly.

The woman looks for the very first time at Katniss and she does nothing but look up and down at her and purse her lips. "Help us with the bags please, Katherine."

She goes inside the house with her husband following her.

"It's Katniss," She says under her breath.

The last one of the brothers stands in front of the limo talking to his girlfriend, she throws her arms around him and they walk towards them. She sees his washed-up jeans and that jacket, but the things that really gave him away were those eyes. Her heart races up and she thinks he might be able to hear it pumping on her chest. Her hands shake and she puts them inside her jacket's pockets so no one can notice. He doesn't see her, he just keeps walking with that confidence he reflects.

"Hey Madge," He hugs Madge. "I've missed you."

She giggles and hugs him back. "Me too, Peeta."

"This is Glimmer," He introduces the blonde standing next to him. She throws a strand of her over her shoulder and smiles at Madge.

"Hey," She says.

"Nice to meet you," Madge forces a smile. "This is Katniss, the new girl."

They make eye contact and she loses in his eyes, for a moment she thinks he really recognized her, but when he just gave her a simple hand shake and turned away she felt a little disappointed inside. Glimmer gave her a simple smile and dragged Peeta inside the house. Madge went to grab the luggage but Katniss remained in place, she looked towards him again and she met her eyes, just like in the train. She broke the contact and shook the thought out of her head to help Madge with the bags.

"Don't even think about it," Madge told her firmly.

"What?"

"I saw the way you looked at him," She accused. "Do you know why your position was vacant?"

"Um- "

"Because he slept with the last three girls that worked here," Madge dragged to suitcases to the front door and waited for Katniss. "I'm just warning you, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but trust me when I say that he doesn't want anything else but to drag you to bed with him."

Katniss closed the front door, confused, and impressed on how eager Madge is about the topic. "Okay."

They leave the suitcases on every family member's room and make their way to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. "Katniss, please trust me on this. He will try to win you, but just know it'll cost you your job and reputation around this part of the district. Promise me you won't sleep with him, please."

She listens carefully to her words and decides to not give them much importance, after all he doesn't even remember her and she knows that even if he did they had no chance of being together. She worked for him, he had a hot girlfriend, and he was completely out of her reach. Case closed, problem solved. She looks at Madge directly in the eye, "I promise."

Madge smiles, "Great, I'll go find the lobster. Start boiling the water and cutting some carrots, be back in five." With that she leaves and Katniss is left in complete silence, only with her noisy thoughts stuck in her head.

"Hey," A familiar voice distracts her. Peeta was leaning against the kitchen's door frame with his arms crossed over his chest, making his biceps pop, and made Katniss distracted by the view. He wore that half smirk that never seemed to be missing and his eyes trailed her body up and down, making her feel self-conscious and uncomfortable.

 _What could he possibly want?_ She thought annoyed. "Peeta, right?"

"That's right," He said moving closer to where she was, never breaking the eye contact. "They did tell me that Cassandra got fired, but I didn't know they'll hire someone this beautiful to replace her."

Her hearth started beating rapidly in her chest and she felt a little guilty for having a good reaction to his words. She started cutting the carrot again, needing to distract herself from his attention. He moved towards her, while she tried to calm her breath and stop her hands from shaking. "I just wanted to say," He said standing next to her when she finished cutting the carrot and looked directly in her eyes.

He started leaning in closer, she held her breath and closed her eyes, scared to move, or do anything that she might regret. She felt his breath on her ear, while goosebumps trailed her body and her heart beat speeded up even more. "Welcome, you're gonna love it here." He backed away, slowly, and when he was about to leave the kitchen he turned around one last time and winked at her.

She freed the breath she was holding and pursed her lips nervously.

 _Shit,_ this was going to be harder than she thought.


End file.
